Devil May Cry Ep. 3 & 4 ratchet action, manipulation

Welcome back to another edition of Otaku Corner! As GI gets ready for Hollow’s Eve ’25, I thought that this would be the perfect time to return to Netflix’s animated adaptation of “Devil May Cry,” which was developed by Adi Shakar. I have previously covered episodes 1 and 2, which ended with an explosive bang leading to future episodes. Episodes 3 and 4 pick up with an unknown conspiracy between humans and the underworld brewing and both sides having plans for Dante and his half of the necklace.
Episode 3 Begins with a flash back of Mary and her parents narrowly escaping a demon attack in the New York City subway, leading her father to take matters in his own hands after being ridiculed by police and his fellow academics. In the present day, Dante and Enzo are being held by DARKCOM units and are taken to DARKCOM’s headquarters for further questioning. As Dante is being questioned by Barnes, the White Rabbit and his enforcers arrive, ambushing the DARKCOM convoy and turning the freeway into a battle royale with nothing but destruction as a result. Elsewhere, Anders is revealed as the double agent for the White Rabbit and takes Dante’s amulet while Dr. Fisher is analyzing it. Anders states the reason for his betrayal to DARKCOM: If he gives the amulet to the White Rabbit, his family would not be harmed.
While DARKCOM forces battle with Echidna, Cavaliere, Plasma, Agni and Rudra, the White Rabbit finds Anders and Fisher, takes the amulet from Anders and joins them thinking that it’s all that would be needed to open Sparta’s seal on the underworld. Fisher tells the White Rabbit that something else would be needed to break the seal and attempts to kill the Rabbit by using a grenade. The Rabbit deflects the grenade, killing Fisher and sparing Anders’ life. The Rabbit adds more mayhem by capturing Enzo while Dante attempts to help the DARKCOM team and pursues the Rabbit. Unfortunately, Dante’s neck bomb, implanted by Lady goes off, allowing the Rabbit to capture Dante and continue with his plans uninterrupted.
Episode 4 picks up with Lady’s team regrouped picking up the Rabbit’s trail leading to his hideout which houses other demons who are unaware of his true plans. While Lady and her team investigate, Dante and Enzo along with Baines and his staff are held hostage on Air Force 2 by Agni and Rudra. Baines continue his attempts to lure Dante into working for him but is interrupted by the Rabbit who continues to state to Dante that he has a lineage to Sparta, condemning him for betraying demons. Dante still doubts his connection to Sparta, forcing the Rabbit to have Agni and Rudra kill the other hostages to trigger Dante.
Meanwhile, Lady and her team – backed up by other DARKCOM agents – storm the Rabbit’s hideout only to fall into a deadly trap of which Lady is the only survivor. While being pursued by Echidna Cavaliere and Plasma, Lady fights their attempts to capture her but is temporarily sheltered by an innocent demon family who are fearful of the Rabbit’s retaliation. Lady survives and evades the Rabbit’s forces until she reaches the command center and faces Plasma who posed as a DARKCOM agent. At the same time, Dante unknowingly activates his “Devil Trigger” and battles Agni in a mile-high battle of which he is victorious. Rudra, shocked at the loss of his brother, ends the episode by blowing up Air Force 2, sending Dante and everyone to a questionable climax.
Episodes 3 and 4 were absolute fire. With these two episodes, we got a short but insightful story about Lady’s childhood in how she dreamt of going after forces of evil that turned into an obsession at times when she joined DARKCOM. I also appreciated that these two episodes briefly explained DMC3 without going into too much detail. Of note, Shakar and Capcom did throw in Easter eggs such as the familiar design of the DARKCOM uniforms that are a nod to Captain Commando and an awesome Mega Man bobble head that was in the DARKCOM vehicle. I also liked how Shakar paid homage to the martial arts action film “The Raid” in episode 4. The voice cast continues to earn their pay in each episode, especially Taylor Scout-Compton who gave Lady much growth development.
The downsides were few but upsetting. I could not understand why DARKCOM’s top scientist was killed off in the third episode and why Lady’s team of bad asses were wiped in the middle of the fourth episode. Those events had me screaming internally trying to figure out what purpose did Shakar believe these actions served. I know each team member would face their demise sooner or later, but Shakar’s actions only serve to waste people’s time in watching DMC. Fortunately, other elements in both episodes negated this small but absolute death sentence for the series. I’m hoping more care and less reckless writing comes in the later episodes.
DMC episodes 3 and 4 were great and retained my interest. As of GI press time, Netflix released a trailer for Season 2 that will drop next year with some major changes and include a battle that DMC’s fans wanted and will get. Rest assured, fellow demon hunters, GI will review these episodes because we’re eagerly awaiting them just as other fans are. Until then, we’ll be keeping it stylish.

Brandon Beatty is editor-at-large of Gaming Insurrection. He can be reached by email at brandonb@gaminginsurrection.com